A Losers Guide to Photography

This post is a bit off topic. I've been having a bout of depression that's self-induced. I've been pontificating what's the purpose of life  once you have accomplished everything you desired? I've been having this thought for a few months now and I have tried to create obstacles to keep the depression held at bay. I was scrolling Facebook when I saw a post regarding a South Korean actress Yoo Joo Eun. I don't follow anything Korean, but I found this particularly interesting. She was a young girl, about my age. She was in a similar position where she was doing what she wanted to do, act, but wasn't really successful at it. Her suicide letter was interesting because it wasn't from a position of self-loathing, hatred, remorse or anything. It was almost like her brain said, "this is enough". Her sense of purpose in life was left unfulfilled - or maybe it was fulfilled in some masochistic way. There was another lady I watched on YouTube talking abou...

The Good Photo Recently I've been toying with idea of what makes a good photo. Besides following basic compositional rules and, arguably, even photos that break compositional rules are still following some obscure photo and/or graphic rule. Basically we are bound by rules.  I don't want to argue about a photos composition. I want to argue about the uniqueness and impact of a photo. I pose the following question, is a photo good if everyone has seen [with their own eyes] the subject? This is an interesting question - if someone has been inundated with a certain amount of material or style of material does the photo lose its impact? William Mortensen said that a good photo needs to have a high level of impact to retain the viewers attention.  Photography is subjective. Since photography is subjective, is there room for any absolutes? One could say it is true that a photo is objectively better by being unique, where there is little to no experience with the subject. By being uniq...

Defining Negative Space Wikipedia's definition of negative space is, " Negative space , in art , is the empty space around and between the subject(s) of an image.  Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space occasionally is used to artistic effect as the "real" subject of an image." Negative space is in nearly every piece of art. The major difference between art pieces [photos] is the amount of negative space and the intent of negative space. My personal definition of negative space is - a separate element of space within a photo that compliments the main subject or detracts from the main subject.  I believe negative space can be broken down into two components: additive and subtractive . I think instinctively we, the photographer and observer, know the feeling of good negative space. It's a calming feeling where the space around the subject c...